l’abresle, couvent sainte-marie-de-la tourette

Today I dug further into my sack of architectural self-indulgence by visiting La Tourette, Le Corbusier’s Dominican monastery. Walking through it I felt inverted echoes of the scores of buildings it has inspired—from the Elkin Public Library, through Koolhaas’ Kusthal, and deep (if depth is possible) into the very core of Richard Meier’s raison d'etre. Simultaneously mass, landscape, and volume, the monastery conforms to a simple programmatic diagram and a liberally collaged composition. It was a visceral visit and I spent the day wrestling with the building’s awareness of ground, its interplay of darkness and light, and its pervasive material irregularity. The building is a messy, sloppy masterpiece, if for nothing else than the pure ballsiness of its sculptural maneuvers.